Network and System Defence

Academic Year 2021/2022

General Infomation

The course is given by Professors Marco Bonola and Alessandro Pellegrini.

The course will be delivered in presence. We will also use Microsoft Teams to provide students with news and course material. You can join the Teams channel using this link.

Course Objectives

The course focuses on cybersecurity aspects of modern “Internet-based” systems, considering existing vulnerabilities, countermeasures, and real-world deployments (with live demonstrations). The approach of the course is bottom up: we will consider modern complex systems from the hardware, up to the user, highlighting how different vulnerabilities could be exploited, and how these systems can be hardened at the software/configuration level.

At the end of the course, the students will have acquired knowledge of the internal functioning of modern (distributed) ICT systems, with a special focus on the general methodologies and techniques that can be exploited to enhance their level of security.

Course and Exam Rules

The exam consists in a project, which will be assigned to the students during the course. The project can be handed to one of the Professors at any date (after booking an appointment) by the end of the academic year (unfortunately, no extensions can be granted for any reason).

There are two flavors of the final project: some students are attending a 6 CFU course, others a 9 CFU course. In both cases, the students are required to attend all lectures: the difference in the didactic load relates to the length and the difficulty of assigned projects.

Course Topics (tentative)

• Access networks and perimetral security
• Core Networks
• End-to-end security
• Hardware and Operating Systems security
• Virtualization and Cloud security

Teaching Material

The teaching material will be published on the dedicated Teams channel, during the lectures.